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Wednesday, 31 July 2013

My current task on the to-do list has been putting together my classroom website. One of the pages that I am including, no surprise here, features Online Resources! I've spent almost two years curating online resources through my Resources To Start Off Your Week posts but have really been having a love-hate relationship lately in regards to how they are organized. While I really like completing the annotated bibliography, it seems like the page is getting a bit unmanageable with all of the scrolling involved.

I really wanted to create something easy and streamlined for my students so I turned to Symbaloo, which coincidentally I found while working on a Resources To Start Off Your Week post over a year ago. Here is the posting I created for it originally:Symbaloo- A website used to create a personal internet desktop.- Teachers can use this to aesthetically organize and display their classes' most-used websites and "widgets". These can be anything from subject-specific tools and search engines, to email access and social media.- http://www.symbaloo.com/

I quickly went to work creating subject-specific interfaces that I could easily embed into my classroom website. I love the fact that Symbaloo allows your links to be aesthetically displayed with bright colours and cute little clip-art images. Check out the awesome Symballoos I created for my Science & Math students!

Unfortunately, the way my blog is formatted doesn't allow the entire Symbaloo to fit properly... so I apologize for the difficulty. They do, however, fit perfectly on my classroom website and I couldn't be happier!

Tuesday, 30 July 2013

After finding out that I would be joining the "S-School" team as a full-time teacher, naturally, many of my blog posts turned to discussions of planning and sharing of classroom resources. Since that time, I've received quite a few emails regarding how I specifically go about planning out my classroom units. Now, I by no means consider myself any type of "expert" in classroom planning. In fact, with the ever changing face of education I don't think anyone can truly master this task... ever. Furthermore, this is my first classroom, EVER, so everything is completely brand new to me and every single teacher and classroom is very different.

With that disclosure mentioned, however, I am more than happy to share the steps that I have been going through as I plan out my classes. Since I have already shared my resources for all of the units in my Grade 7 Science class, I will use this class as my example through this post.

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- STEP ONE -

Determine How Many Units I Have To Teach & Lay Out A Tentative Timeline

The very first thing that I do is head to the Grade 7 Science curriculum document to determine how many units I will teach throughout the year and how much time I can devote to each one. **Now I will say right now that I do utilize the Backwards-by-Design method of planning (which I will discuss more later) so I am not a fan of the coverage method of planning. I do, however, plan out a tentative timeline so that I am not spending 6 months on one unit and then trying to cram the remaining 3 units into 4 months.

I then referenced our Divisional Calendar and determined that I have a maximum of 194 school days (after subtracting PD days) to achieve this. Using this information I created myself a very-tentative timeline to help keep my planning on track and best utilize season-specific resources. I also consciously build in contingency time to account for student needs and any days lost. My resulting timeline looks something like this:

- Interactions with Ecosystems (7 Weeks)

- I placed this unit first to take advantage of the ability to

be outside for ecosystem lab activities.

- The Earth's Crust (7 Weeks)

- I placed this unit second because of the ability to finish it,

in full, by Christmas break so that we weren't in the middle of

a unit during break.

- Particle Theory of Matter (10 Weeks)

- I placed this unit third because it is the longest & has a natural

break in the middle that I can plan around our semester break.

- Forces & Structures (6 Weeks)

- I placed this unit last because it lends itself naturally to a lot of

hands-on activities at the end of the year and allows construction

to take place outside.

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- STEP TWO -

Pick a Unit & Utilize the Backwards-by-Design Method of Planning

I started with the unit, Interactions with Ecosystems, and completed the Backwards-by-Design Method of Planning (also referred to as Understanding by Design). This involved me determining what Enduring Understandings I wanted my students to know at the end of the unit, and working backwards to determine the best activities and assessment strategies to meet this goal. Here are the questions I answer as I make my way through this process:

What are the Enduring Understandings or
GLO’s for Grade 7 Science: Interactions with Ecosystems?

I utilize both hard-copy and online resources that I have found personally or that a colleague has shared with me. While I never intend to use every single resource that I find, I try to collect a diverse mix of online and offline resources that can:

The online resources that I curated for the unit, Interactions with Ecosystems, can be viewed in one of my previous posts.

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- STEP FOUR -

Create a Tentative Calendar of Activities to Meet the Unit Goals

Using a simple Word Document table I create myself a very tentative calendar of activities to take us through the unit to work towards our unit goals. I understand that every single one of these calendars will change based on student needs, interest levels, and school activities but it serves as a good framework to keep me organized in regards to:

After I've curated my available resources and tentatively planned out the activities that can meet the unit goals, I go through a simple checklist that I created for myself. This checklist summarizes my personal goals as well as some of our school and divisional goals to ensure that I am including certain aspects into my planning. I do not use the exact same checklist for every single class and subject, but it is a good strategy to ensure that I am providing a variety of different learning opportunities. Here is the checklist I went through for this unit:

Component

Checklist

Layered Curriculum

- Activities Divided Amongst Levels 1-4

Opportunities Outside of the Classroom

- Ecosystem Sampling Outdoor Activity

Lab Activity

- Ecosystem Sampling Outdoor Activity

- Candle in a Jar Activity

Mentoring Activity with Another Class

- Share Take Action Project with Another

Class

Community Involvement

---------------------------------------------------------

Linguistic Activities

- Notes

- Debatable Qs
Choices

- Handouts

- Entrance/Exit
Slips

- Discussions

Logical/Mathematical Activities

- Ecosystems Sampling Outdoor Activity

- Candle in a Jar Lab

- Missing Ecosystem

- Food Web/E. Pryamid

Visual/Spatial Activities

- Ecosystem Illustrations

- Habitat Take Action Project

- Food Chain/E. Pyramid Illustration/Display

Kinaesthetic Activities

- Web of Life

- Candle in a Jar Lab

- Ecosystem Sampling Outdoor Activity

- Post-it Activity

- Role Playing Activity

Musical Activities

- Ecosystem Rap Review

- Microbes They Might Kill You Sing Along

Interpersonal Activities

- Discussions

-
K.W.Ls

- Web of Life

- Post-it Activity

- Center Activities

- Lab Partners

Intrapersonal Activities

- Outcome Framework Tracking

- Entrance/Exit Slips

- Layered Curriculum Provides Choices

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STEP SIX (if there was a step six) would be to repeat STEPS 1-5 for each of the remaining units until the year is planned out!

Monday, 29 July 2013

It is really scary to think that this is my lastResources To Start Off Your Week post of July! That means that there is literally one month before I am in my very first classroom full-time! Now don't get me wrong... I am beyond excited and cannot wait for that to happen, but that also means that I need to really make sure that I am focusing on my planning in order for everything to fall into place in time.

I know that I am definitely preaching to the choir as many of my American followers are already in their classrooms and I so appreciate all the information they have been sharing through their blogs! It is very helpful to read what other teachers are doing and see what might fit with my classroom too. It is my hope that some of my posts can be just as helpful. With that being said, I will be adding these new additions to my lists of resources under the Fav Websites heading.

1 ) 101 Questions
- Organized and curated by Dan Meyer, this website features
short film clips and images that are designed to perplex and stump our
students. This website is awesome for getting students to ask
appropriate questions and learn to question the world around them.
- Users can answer the question on the website and submit it to see
what other users have answered. It is really neat to see the different
perspectives and could make for interesting discussion about why
people answered in the way that they did.
- I think this website would be really neat to utilize as a morning routine
and feature a different question each morning. It would also be neat to
pick very specific questions to fit in with certain lessons as a unit progresses.
- http://www.101qs.com

2 ) Interactive Bloom's Taxonomy Wheel
- Bloom's Taxonomy, most often represented as a wheel, is an
important aspect of a teacher's planning to ensure students not only
understand information but can also utilize it effectively in various
situations.
- This interactive wheel would be perfect for new teachers who are
becoming familiar with Bloom's Taxonomy or simply a good review
for teachers at any level. It allows the user to explore each of the 6
levels on the taxonomy, understand what each of them means, and get
ideas of what activities fit in with each level.
- There are even specific links for teachers to explore various ed tech
tools that meet each level!
- http://eductechalogy.org/swfapp/blooms/wheel/engage.swf

3 ) Copyright in a Copy-Paste World
- This is one of the BEST copyright and plagiarism information
websites for students that I have found so far. Through the use
of articles, interactives, images, and film clips this website covers
the following questions: Is It Really Stealing? Why Should I Care?
What Does It Look Like? What Tools Can I Use? How Can I Use
My Own Brain?
- There are specific tabs for students and teachers and allows students
to actually self-check their own work to ensure that they aren't
plagiarizing in their work; awesome!
- This is a website that I will definitely be sharing in my classroom and
with my colleagues!
- http://www.pleasedontcheat.com/

Friday, 26 July 2013

This is the LAST resources post regarding my Grade 7 Science curriculum planning and it covers the unit of Forces & Structures. All together, there are four units covered over the course of the school year and I have been sharing my individual unit breakdowns and online resource database. Until I actually meet my students and spend time learning their needs and interests, I have been building a plethora of resources to have in my back pocket as we make our way through the school year. Over the past 2 months, I have been sharing these resources with you! Check out my previous Grade 7 Science resources posts, broken down by individual units:
- Interactions with Ecosystems
- The Earth's Crust
- Particle Theory of Matter

This unit was really enjoyable to plan out because it lends itself very naturally to having a lot of hands-on building activities. In regards to my full year planning, I have placed this unit as our very last one so that students have an opportunity to have lots of busy, hands-on, exploratory learning opportunities at the end of May and June. I feel like this will be a good fit for that time of year when students are not feeling like being in the classroom listening to lecture or working on written assignments.

Forces on Structures

Enduring Understanding: Structures
are under internal and external forces that affect their strength and
stability.

7-3-01 Use appropriate vocabulary related to their
investigations of forces and

fatigue,
structural failure, load, magnitude, point and plane of application,

efficiency.

7-3-02 Classify natural and human-built structures found
locally and around the

world.

Include:
frame, shell, solid

7-3-03 Identify the centre of gravity in a model structure,
and demonstrate that

changes in
the location of a structure’s centre of gravity affect its stability.

7-3-04 Identify internal forces acting on a structure, and
describe them using

diagrams.

7-3-05 Identify external forces acting on a structure, and
describe them using

diagrams.

7-3-06 Recognize the internal and external forces apply stress
to structures, and

describe
examples in which this stress has lead to structural fatigue or

structural
failure.

7-3-07 Investigate to determine that the effect of a force on
a structure depends on

its magnitude,
direction, and point and plane of application.

Analyzing & Designing Structures

Enduring Understanding: Specific materials & structural shapes can increase the strength
and stability of structures so that they can
withstand external forces.

7-3-08 Describe, using diagrams, how common structural shapes
and components

can increase
the strength and stability of a structure

7-3-09Describe and
demonstrate methods to increase the strength of materials.

7-3-10Determine the
efficiency of a structure by comparing its mass with the

mass of the
load it supports.

7-3-11 Evaluate a structure to determine the appropriateness
of its design, using

the design
process.

7-3-12Use the design
process to construct a structure that will withstand the

application
of an external force.

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In addition to hard-copy resources I have available in the school and from colleagues, I also started to organize some online resources to supplement our classroom activities. Here are the resources I found, organized by the themes I stated above. For each one I've included the title, a very brief point about what it includes, and the link.

Wednesday, 24 July 2013

As you might know, I am teaching two different science classes this upcoming year: Grade 7 & Grade 8. I had a really fun time planning out these two classes because my class sizes are SO small and I could easily build in A LOT of labs and various other hands-on activities. My primary focus when developing my lessons is to provide a relevant and meaningful learning experience for my students. (Obviously, this means that I will continue to modify things as the school year progress and I learn more about my students.)

One resource that I came across to help me meet my planning goals was Mr. Parr's YouTube Channel! This channel is absolutely amazing and I can't stop sharing it with my fellow teacher friends! Mr. Parr is a Grade 6 teacher who creates songs about science to help his students learn and study about various topics. I've built in so many of his songs into my units and wanted to give him some support by sharing his YouTube Channel through my blog! Here is what why I LOVE his videos so much:

- Topics cover:
- Scientific Inquiry
- Biology
- Geology
- Physics
- Chemistry
- Environmentalism
- Geography
- Space
- Electricity
- Lyrics are included in the videos
- Information ranges from Introductory Concepts to Full Review
- Songs inspiration is from the "Top 40" listings so almost all students
should recognize them
- Meets the Musical Intelligence aspect of Gardner's Theory (which I
have a hard time meeting sometimes)
- There are Over 150 Songs Here are some of my favourite songs that I've built into either my Grade 7 or Grade 8 plans:

Tuesday, 23 July 2013

My curriculum planning is almost half way done now as I've currently completed my year-plans for:
- Grade 7 Science
- Grade 8 Art &
- Grade 8 Science
So far I've been sharing with you the resources I've found and incorporated into my Grade 7 Science unit, including my posts on Interactions with Ecosystems and The Earth's Crust. The next, and longest, unit in the curriculum discusses the Particle Theory of Matter and has practically double the curriculum outcomes of The Earth's Crust unit.

This unit caused me the greatest amount of difficulty so far because it is the furthest out of my comfort zone and it is so much longer compared to the other units. One of my biggest concerns was holding student attention on the subject for almost three months. To assist with this, I built in a lot of science experiments and projects and left room for student choice so they can explore the areas that interest them the most.

Intro to Particle Theory of Matter

Enduring Understanding: The particle theory of matter is a scientific theory
used to describe changes of state.

7-2-01 Use appropriate vocabulary related to their
investigations of the

7-2-05 Explain what scientific theories are, and provide some
examples.

Include: a
scientific theory helps to explain an observation; when this

explanation
has been repeatedly tested and shown to be consistent it is

generally
accepted in the scientific world.

7-2-06 Describe the
particle theory of matter and us it to explain changes of state.

7-2-13 Differentiate between pure substances and mixtures by
using the particle

theory of
matter.

Include: a
pure substance is made up of one type of particle; a mixture is

made up of
two or more types of particles.

Heat & Energy Transfer

Enduring Understanding: Energy has many different forms that often give off
heat when transferred.from one substance to the next.

7-2-02 Evaluate different types of thermometers using the
design process.

7-2-03 Demonstrate the effects of heating and cooling on the
volume of solids,

liquids, and
gases, and give examples from daily life.

7-2-04 Compare the boiling and melting points of a variety of
substances and

recognize
that boiling and melting points are properties of pure substances.

Include:
water.

7-2-07 Differentiate between the concept of temperature the
concept of heat.

7-2-08 Demonstrate how heat can be transmitted through solids,
liquids, and

gases.

Include:
conduction, convection, radiation.

7-2-09 Plan an experiment to identify material that are good
heat insulators and

good heat
conductors, and describe some uses of these materials.

7-2-10 Use the design process to construct a prototype that
controls the transfer of

heat energy.

7-2-11 Recognize that hat energy is the most common by-product
of energy

transformations,
and describe some examples.

7-2-12 Identify different forms of energy that can be
transformed into heat

energy.

Include:
mechanical, chemical, nuclear, electrical.

Solutions, Substances & Mixtures

Enduring Understanding: Solutions and
mixtures are two different substances that are affected by a unique set of factors.

7-2-14 Differentiate between the two types of mixtures,
solutions and mechanical

mixtures.

Include:
solutions - homogeneous; mechanical mixtures - heterogeneous

mixtures.

7-2-15 Classify a variety of substances used in daily life as
pure substances,

solutions,
or mechanical mixtures.

7-2-16 Identify solutes and solvents in a common solid,
liquid, and gaseous

solutions.

7-2-17 Describe solutions by using the particle theory of
matter.

Include:
particles have an attraction for each other; the attraction between

the
particles of solute and solvent keeps them in solution.

7-2-18 Demonstrate different methods of separating the
components of both

solutions
and mechanical mixtures.

7-2-19 Identify a separation technique used in industry, and
explain why it is

appropriate.

7-2-20 Experiment to determine factors that affect solubility.

Include:
agitation, surface area, temperature/

7-2-21 Describe the concentration of a solution in qualitative
and quantitative

terms, and
give examples from daily life when the concentration of a

solution
influences its usefulness.

Include: dilute, concentrated, grams of
solute per 100 mL.

7-2-22 Demonstrate the difference between saturated and
unsaturated solutions.

7-2-23 Discuss the potential harmful effects of some
substances on the

environment,
and identify methods to ensure their safe use and disposal.

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In addition to hard-copy resources I have available in the school and from colleagues, I also started to organize some online resources to supplement our classroom activities. Here are the resources I found, organized by the themes I stated above. For each one I've included the title, a very brief point about what it includes, and the link.